Month: December 2013

From my office window I became transfixed on the sparkling snow flakes fluttering through the air in the distance out over the boulder creek trail. It’s early morning in December, and the angle of the sun is perfectly illuminating countless thousands of minuscule crystals of ice.

My initial perception of this beauty is that of a thousand snow flakes reflecting the sun only for an instant, causing the scene to appear luminescent. But this perception is derived from my own conceit. The snow flakes are not shining for an instant just for me. Each one is radiating a beam of light from the sun constantly as it traverses the atmosphere. A continuous beam of beautiful light, not merely a flash as I had perceived. This stunning realization flashed through my mind, producing a new much more beautiful perception. A beautiful three-dimensional unseen dance of countless thousands of continuous beams of reflected sunlight from each of the thousands of snow flakes, which only occasionally intersect my eyes.

Alas, as I write, the angle of the sun has changed, and the beauty is no longer visually perceptible from this vantage point. The universe is much more beautiful than we can perceive with just our eyes.